


Running away

by dancergrl1



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Anger, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Minor Injuries, Missing Scene, This is me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-13 15:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14115834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancergrl1/pseuds/dancergrl1
Summary: Where did Anne go between the concert and the show?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So once again @overlycompensatedapprentice and i were talking and i asked this question. so i decided to answer it. Canon compliant missing scene.

Anne could feel the glares on her back. She saw Philip flinch out of the corner of her eye a second before he disentangled his hand from hers. He never even turned his head as she walked away.

 

Once she’d left the theatre, she ran. She knew how she looked, another freak running through the streets. Tears streamed down her face as she finally reached her temporary home. She savagely tugged at the zipper of the dress, hating what it meant. 

 

Once she was in her costume, she felt herself begin to come back to center. She tugged on the ropes, set the sandbags, and did what she did best. 

 

She flew. 

 

She put her hoop precariously high in the air, needing to feel the freedom in her movements, and began twisting herself through and around it. With every flip, twist, and burn of a stretched muscle, she felt herself calming, centering, relaxing. 

 

How dare he treat her like she was less.

 

How dare he treat her like something unworthy.

 

How dare he treat her like she was disposable.

 

How dare he.

 

She missed the rope for a grab and felt herself free falling. She knew she had seconds to arrange herself to absorb the impact. 

 

Hitting the ground was like an old friend. She breathed through the pain of the impact. When she was able, she picked herself up and dusted off the sawdust. Leaving her hoop in the air, she started running choreography through the ring, leaping and flipping off the ground like a butterfly. 

 

She thought of her dress, considered burning it. Her heartbreak had turned to anger with each repetition. 

 

She was so far into her head she never heard her brother come to collect her. It was the third calling of her name that finally got her attention. 

 

“WD? When did you get back?” 

 

“Long story. It’s showtime shortly.” His tone left no room for discussion. 

 

Lettie cornered her as she went to put her wig on. “It’s time.”

 

Anne nodded. She knew what those words meant. 

\---

_ I’m not scared _

_ To be seen _

_ I make no apologies _

_ THIS IS ME _

 

The manic, angry energy running through the troupe was contagious. She spied carlyle lurking in the office windows. There was no kindness in her glare as their eyes met. She watched him walk away, like he always did. 

There was no love lost. 


	2. Rewrite the stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Philip will NOT let Anne get away so easily after the theatre

It was happening again. She was walking away, and it was because of his damn parents. He looked them dead on. 

“How dare you. How dare you speak to her that way.”

A few more heated words were exchanged, and he left. He tore through the streets, unknowingly reminiscent of what Anne had done weeks before. He burst into the circus to see her wrapping her hands. 

His heart broke as she pulled them away from him. “They’re small minded people.” 

Anne shook her head. “It’s not just them.”

Anne walked away from him, but this time, Philip would be damned if she was going to get away that easily. 

“You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide.” He reached for the rope in her hands, and she pulled it away. 

“I know you want me. Please, stop saying our hands are tied.” He was pleading with her. 

The ropes pulled her into the air, and he squinted against the light. He couldn’t see her. 

“You think i don’t wanna run to you? There are just doors we can’t walk through.” She flew by him, and on her second pass tumbled him to the floor. “We’re able to be together in here. When we go outside, you’re gonna see it was hopeless from the start.” 

He grabbed onto the hoop in a desperate attempt to keep her with him. He realized he had to go into her world to understand, she couldn’t stay in his. He grabbed her and they flew, a tandem duo learning how to trust each other. 

“It feels impossible.” She whispered to him. 

“It’s not impossible,” he replied with force. 

“Say that it’s possible?” she plead. 

He held her by the shoulders, turning her towards him. “We’re gonna change the world to be ours.” It was his promise to her. 

She couldn’t bring herself to believe him. “We’re bound to break, and my hands are tied.”

She left him standing in the middle of the ring, holding a rope with nothing attached.

**Author's Note:**

> Review? PLEASE leave ideas!


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